


Believing

by adam_anellaer



Series: Snowfalls on the Rainforest [1]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-13 00:57:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3361889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adam_anellaer/pseuds/adam_anellaer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone knows that Santa only comes when children are sound asleep, and the Tooth Fairy never comes if you're up waiting for her. Everyone knows Guardians can't show themselves to children. <br/>So when North tells Jack he can't show himself to Jamie, or any other child anymore, the until-recently-unseen Winter Spirit, gets very, very mad.<br/>And who best to explain than a forever understanding fairy?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Believing

_It is not fair!_ That was the only thing he could think of right now that would fit the description of the situation. Just an undeniable feeling of pure injustice.

He clenched his jaw, and with a deep frown in his forehead, he gripped his staff tighter in his fist, his knuckles becoming even paler.

How c-could they ask something like _that_ to him, k-knowing what he had been through!

He just let himself fly with no destiny, carried by the wind, such a frustrated feeling in his heart, that he couldn't make up his mind in what to do next. He felt like he could put the entire Europe under a new Ice Age.

Growling furiously, he swung his staff and completely froze a big pine tree in the Russian Taiga under him. Then, with an angry cry, he shattered it in a million of tiny pieces.

He caught up his mismatching breath, heart beating wildly inside his messed up head.

Suddenly, the wind picked him up, dragging him way up in the sky, towards the freezing layers of the atmosphere, where the air currents galloped faster.

\- Hey! Stop it! – the boy grumpily yelled.

But the wind continued to haul him like a rag doll. And it kept blowing, hard and strong apart from Jack’s efforts to master it. Felling is rage, the gelid breeze attempted to calm him down. It swirled around him, entering inside is hoddie, tickling him in the face, messing his virgin white hair.

The boy could sense his oldest friend prickling through his entire skin, and that feeling feed a so familiar sentiment of amusement and joy that it was impossible for him not to laugh. And that pure laughter seemed to shoo the anger away…

The winter spirit laughed, and the Wind took this as the key-word to stop their little game.

-  Thank you. – he whispered, so only the Wind could hear. Not that anyone else could, well, not at this height at least.

His thoughts were rather clear now, and he didn’t felt so lost anymore. He paused just a little, floating in mid air, one foot gently touching the thick mantel of clouds under him.

Jack lowered his icy blue eyes, something like sorrow refilling them once more. He still had to clarify some things, and he knew the person that had the love and patience required for the job.

So, with powerful gust of wind, he speeded up above this superior white ocean, heading south.

In a matter of minutes, he saw high islands rising from this sea, the rounded peaks peeking the bright sun.

He finally let himself fall, going through the overflowed clouds, the water droplets hitting him in the face, surprisingly warm against his skin.

Once emerged from the cloudlet, his eyes were completely drowned by the deep green of the forest below. The strong cries of tropical birds could be heard even from this altitude.

He looked forward, as soon as he was able to divert his eyes from the vibrant colors of the jungle. And there, in the distance, he saw the big pinkish mountain, involved in mist.

It had suddenly started to rain, and Jack hurry up his way because the water was freezing around him, making hail fall in the tropical forest.

When he refocused the view of his goal, his eyes widened in awe, and his mouth dropped slightly open. Amazingly, a few sunbeams had perforated the gray sky, illuminating the mountain ahead in a golden aura. It was wonderful, and, in his 300 years, Jack doesn’t remember seeing sunbeams in a rainy day as beautiful as these.

 

He soon flew in the Tooth Palace, shaking his head, trying to take some water and ice crystals out of his wet locks. The Palace was darker than usual, probably because of the lack of sun, but one could see golden light entering here and there, brightening the details of the towers and lighting up the golden and the endless shades of pink.

Jack felt his hands suddenly run to his ears, trying to cover the deafening sound that reverberated throughout the place.

The humming of the minifairies was constant, filing up the entire cave with high squeals that hit the walls of rock and echoed all over again. He had never been here in a “regular day of work”, and if it was heartwarming to see all the fairies home again, the ear-piercing noise prevented him from remaining there for too long.

He decided to follow the never-ending torrent of fairies that entered the mountain with teeth to store. He noticed that their feathers were wet as well, owing it  to the heavy rain outside, but apparently, it didn’t seem to disturb their flight capacity.

He went up to one of them, questioning her:

"I’m sorry, but could you tell me where Tooth is?"  

The minifairy chirped happily, grateful to help the Winter Spirit, and glad just for being in his cool presence. She started to fly towards a tall tower, where the sun beamed stronger, and Jack followed her right away.

As they came closer, Jack started to hear the energetic voice of the Fairy Queen above the wing-beat of the other fairies, giving instructions to her helpers.

The minifairy that guided him chirped once more, pointing her little arm at the Tooth Fairy. Jack simply nodded and gave the fairy a beautiful smile, in a way of thanking for her help. The little one squealed again, dropping a few inches in the air, earning a light chuckle from the boy. When the minifairy composed herself, she waved her tiny hand and flew away bashfully.

The Winter Spirit landed silently on the marble floor of the platform, walking slowly towards the unaware Fairy. She hovered energetically, one second here, the other there, speaking at an astonishing speed. There were words that he couldn’t quite understand, but apparently her helpers did.

He noticed her feathers were damp too and a little messy, but they shone as beautiful as ever in the sunlight, the iridescent reflexes marveling Jack as they always did.

_She really got back in the field_ , the Guardian thought, smiling fondly. Then, the smile melted in a mischievous smirk, as the boy sneaked up to the oblivious fairy.

"Hi Tooth!" he said, right behind her. She turned around in the instant, her head feathers ruffled by the shock and one of her tiny hands flying to her chest.

"Jack!" she exclaimed, in a mix of reprehension and happiness. But she smiled nevertheless, and promptly flew down to him.

"It’s so good to see you!" And she went to give him a hug but then she suddenly stopped, backing away faintly.  

Jack frowned just the slightest, unaware of what made the female act like that. But then the fairy looked down, gazing her wet body. The boy chuckled.

"Don’t worry! I’m a little wet too!" Jack said, smiling widely. Tooth lifted her eyes bashfully, but smiled as well, relieved, finally embracing him in a tight hug.

The Winter Spirit closed his eyes and inhaled her fragrance, arms embracing her smaller form strongly. She smelled like flours and sun. There was also a little bit of peppermint, lingering in the scent. He smiled against her shoulder.

But the girl suddenly pulled away, like she had got burned or something, hovering away from him. Her cerise eyes were wide open in surprise.

"What happened?" Jack asked, worried that her irises reflected fright and not just shock. She turned her body lightly, trying to get a better look of her back.

Then Jack saw it. Beautiful patterns of ice crystals decorated her back’s plumage, right in the place where Jack’s hands have been resting a second ago. His eyes widened.

"I am _so_ sorry!" he quickly said, embarrassed. He wanted to disappear inside his hoddie, and it was with great strength that he didn’t fly away with the shame that he felt. Normally he was able to hold himself when he wanted. And it was with shock that he felt his face temperature grow a little warmer.

He made up the courage to look at her, searching for any sign of scare or disgust. But to his surprise he saw a smile. And after that, came a laughter. In a high note, like petit ringing bells, very different from his deeps chuckles. And he loved it.

"Well, that doesn’t usually happen." she said, in a relaxed voice. "I think they look very nice!"

And Jack couldn’t avoid releasing a quiet laughter.

"Well, you’re very welcome." he stated in a low tone, but he was still a little bit embarrassed. He didn’t use to lose control like that.

"So…" she continued, smoothing her head feathers "What brings you here, Jack?"

"Oh…" he said, looking at his bare feet.

The sadness from earlier, which the mere presence of the fairy seemed to make disappear, returned to his conscience. Wasn’t it curious, that the Guardian of Memories was the best making him forget the sad things in his life?

He continued staring at the ground.

"I got a little pissed off with North."

"Why?" she asked, worry in her eyes, flying down to his eye level. Jack sighed deeply, and after a moment his blue irises found hers again.

He had all of her attention, like he was expecting even with the humming of thousands of fairies passing by. It looked like he had a knot in his throat which wouldn’t let him speak.

"H-he didn’t want me to go talk to Jamie again, o-or to let him see me…"

Really! Now he was stuttering! Wasn’t it bad already?

He gazed the iridescent fairy again, as her eyes widened slightly in realization.

"Oh…" she exclaimed softly, finally understanding the boy’s behavior, and her eyes became tender. And that look in her eyes definitely undid the knot. Tooth proceeded, chuckling lightly as she spoke – He got problems with that himself, when he first became a Guardian…

Now Jack had a curious look on his face, frowning at the fairy’s words.

"Come, I will explain it to you." she calmly stated, extending her petite hand for him to grab. He stared at it for a second, but he gave her his own pale hand, that was so big relatively to hers.

There was nothing romantic about it. But Jack felt like he was just a young boy next to the dimension of the Tooth Fairy’s wisdom, which was very curious comparing their anatomic hand size.

Tooth started flying downward, towards the turquoise lake near the mural, where Jack first knew about his memories.

It looked like this had become a place of revelations.

It was raining down there, unsheltered from the cover that the mountain itself gave to the palace, and the cerulean pool was agitated with the drops of water that fell in it.

They sat under a tree with little rosy flowers that seemed to never wither. It was supposed to refuge them from the rain, but it wasn’t doing such a great job.

Jack looked down at her. A little drop fell from above, falling right on top of her golden head feather. It gently slid through the rib of quill, until it reached her forehead, slipping down to the very tip of her rosy nose.

And it just stayed there! And Jack really tried to hold himself! Well, at least he tried…

He blew softly and the little droplet became a tiny snowflake, consequently freezing Tooth’s nose tip. She crossed her eyes comically, trying to see the ice crystal, making an effort not to sneeze at the sudden cold feeling.

"Jack Frost is nipping at your nose." the boy said in a low voice, almost in a whisper, that send Tooth a shiver down her body. Her cheeks blushed lightly and she gave him a shy smile.

This snowflake wasn’t a magical one… They were about to have a serious conversation and Jack knew it wasn’t the proper time to make Tooth laugh hysterically.

So he simply stretched his finger and took the snowflake of her nose, showing it to her. The fairy giggled and with eyes large with curiosity and wonder, she extended her slender fingertip to touch the ice crystal.

When it melted at her contact, she looked at Jack with an apologetic face. But all she saw was a tender smile on his lips and a loving look in his eyes. She felt heat rise to her cheeks once more and her eyes widened slightly.

Both gazes quickly drifted to the pool.

Jack began talking, when the weight of the silence between them was too big to handle.

"So… why can’t I show myself to Jamie anymore? I’ve already had my measure of years of invisibility. What if I become invisible again?" he asked quietly.

Tooth’s look fell on him again, but the boy kept staring at his own colorless hands. She then smiled fondly, her heart full with compassion for the fragile boy in front of her.

"You won’t be invisible again." she started softly. "You just have to give time to time. You’ll start having more and more believers. And Jamie will never stop believing in you! Neither his friends! And when they grow up they will tell their children stories about Jack Frost, and how together with the Guardians, they’ve won the Battle of Belief." 

But for Jack, this wasn’t a proper explanation, well, not enough at least, as his heart was frightened, and fear is a difficult opponent to argument with.

He quickly turned towards the fairy, unconsciously grabbing her hands, and squeezing them tight, as his life depended on it. An in a certain way, it did.

"So why don’t we show ourselves to more children, so that we have more strong believers? Why put ourselves in risk of disappearing?" he asked eagerly, looking her in the eye.

"Oh, Jack..." she said patiently, her eyes with a special sparkle in them. "Children’s faith must be pure. They should believe in us with their hearts, and not because they’ve seen us. We don’t show ourselves to children because they should know that the most important things in life can’t be seen or touched. They have to learn to believe without any physical proofs. Isn’t that what believing means?"


End file.
